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While he has left open the possibility of dismissing Mr. Mueller and began considering it shortly after the special counsel was appointed last month, the president’s anger has been largely trained on Mr. Sessions and Mr. Rosenstein, whom he views less as executors of law than as salaried staff.

At a congressional hearing this week, Mr. Rosenstein issued a modest declaration of independence, testifying that he was the only person who had the ability to fire Mr. Mueller. And he made plain that his actions would not be dictated by the president.

“I’m not going to follow any order unless I believe they are lawful and appropriate orders,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “It wouldn’t matter to me what anybody said.”

Mr. Trump has a different view of the chain of command, aides said, but he also knows that he cannot afford to fire Mr. Rosenstein without prompting a massive backlash on Capitol Hill, even among Republicans. But the deputy attorney general, who would have to sign off on Mr. Mueller’s firing, has become a favorite target for Mr. Trump in conversations with advisers and friends.

With a new Trump biography and a six-part lecture series, Newt Gingrich is auditioning for his latest role—defining and interpreting Trumpism....

A few weeks after the 2016 election, Newt Gingrich appeared at the Heritage Foundation to deliver what had been billed as a speech on the “Principles of Trumpism.” Tellingly, he spent most of his time instead talking about the brilliance of Trump the Man—his epic debate performances, his social media cunning, his utter domination of every opponent that provokes him. “Donald Trump is the grizzly bear in The Revenant,” Gingrich gushed at one point. “If you get his attention, he will get awake … he will walk over, bite your face off, and sit on you.”

To the extent that he tried to articulate any “principles” then, they seemed largely to cohere around a collection of culture-war applause lines and campaign-trail talking points. Someone listening Gingrich’s speech in search of a definition could have been forgiven for assuming “Trumpism” aimed primarily to protect cashiers’ right to say “Merry Christmas,” and to shame NFL players who don’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. It was not, in other words a fully formed political ideology—at least not yet.

If someone could extract all of the integrity exhibited by the entire GOP contingent in both chambers of Congress this year, could God make a container small enough to store it without it being lost in the emptiness?

If someone could extract all of the integrity exhibited by the entire GOP contingent in both chambers of Congress this year, could God make a container small enough to store it without it being lost in the emptiness?

You may have just discovered the "why" of quantum mechanics.

I like to think of quantum fluctuations as God's neurons firing. But, really, the whole thing could just be a way to define the dimensions of such a container - one cubic Planck length.

Mr. Trump's lawyer wants us to know that Mr. Trump is not under investigation even though Mr. Trump tweeted so; and it is Twitter's fault for having character limits as to why Mr. Trump tweeted the following:
I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt

Former national security adviser under President Obama, Susan Rice, said Russian President Vladimir Putin "is lying" by denying Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Rice in an exclusive interview on "This Week" Sunday was asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos about Putin's recent statement that the Russian government didn't meddle in the U.S. election although patriotic Russians might have done so.

"Is that as close to an admission of guilt we're going to get form President Putin?" Stephanopoulos said.

Trump tells David Letterman that he’s done “a lot of business with the Russians” and says they are “smart” and “tough” and that they don’t look “so dumb right now.” He calls Putin a “tough guy” and says that he “met him once.”

November 2013

Trump says he has a relationship with Vladimir Putin:

“I do have a relationship and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today,” he said on MSNBC of the Miss Universe pageant. “He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today, and I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form, but I do have a relationship with him and I think it’s very interesting to see what’s happened.”

April 12, 2014

Trump tells Fox Business’ Eric Bolling that Putin was nice to him during Miss Universe.

“We just left Moscow,” Trump said. “He could not have been nicer. He was so nice and so everything. But you have to give him credit that what he’s doing for that country in terms of their world prestige is very strong.”

In the same interview, Trump praises Putin’s invasion of Crimea.

“Well, he’s done an amazing job of taking the mantle,” Trump said. “And he’s taken it away from the President, and you look at what he’s doing. And so smart. When you see the riots in a country because they’re hurting the Russians, OK, ‘We’ll go and take it over.’ And he really goes step by step by step, and you have to give him a lot of credit.”

Did you see any of the interviews Sekulow gave today? I wouldn't trust him to vet Trump's tweets.

I didn't pay attention to this guy until I saw his name in the clip you cited.

Holy ****, Jay is the Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice, a far right-wing organization that, among other things, pursues First Amendment cases involving religious rights. And by that I mean cases where the beleaguered, picked-upon, discriminated-against right-wing Christians claim that their fee-fees have been hurt by our secular society and, especially, atheists. His track record in such cases sucks banana balls.

His son, Jordan, is the Executive Director of that same organization. Jay apparently goes by the notion that nepotism is OK as long as it's kept in the family.

If you hire someone to be your legal mouthpiece, whose job is to issue the sort of obfuscation and doubletalk you want put out to the public to CYA, then it would be advisable to hire someone who is at least marginally plausible at it.

Trump needs to keep lawyer shopping, it seems.

__________________"It never does just what I want, but only what I tell it."

No! Take notice that Trump does not confront Putin in regard to Putin's interference in the 2016 US presidential election, which is unacceptable. An adversary interfered in our election process and Trump fails to do the right thing.